She's the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. An unwanted child. A believer in the power of love. A longtime Buddhist. ANDREA MILLER talks to Tina Turner.
Tina Turner—I'll never forget my first glimpse of her. It was when I was ten years old and watched Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She had killer legs, impressively large shoulder pads (even by eighties standards), and the most incredible raspy, sexy voice I'd ever heard. What happened to me is what, at that point, had been happening to audiences for more than two decades, and now has been happening for more than half a century: I was awed.
The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll is not just a powerhouse on stage. She is also a longtime Buddhist, having begun her practice in the 1970s while struggling to end an abusive relationship with musician Ike Turner. Soka Gakkai, the tradition to which Tina Turner adheres, is like other schools and subschools of Nichiren Buddhism; it focuses on the Lotus Sutra and teaches that chanting its title in Japanese—Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—ultimately enables chanters to embrace the entirety of the text and uncover their buddhanature.
Q: All religions speak about
love, and it sounds easy to be loving. But people so frequently fail to
love. Why is loving so difficult?
A: Some people are born into a loving family. For example, everyone in
the family greets everyone else in the morning, they sit at breakfast
together, they give each other a kiss when they leave. There is harmony
and love in the house. When you are born with that, you take it with
you.
But some people are born into situations where they’re exposed to
everything but love. The world is full of people that are born into such
situations, and they are traveling through life in the dark. No one has
ever explained to them that they need to find love, and they have no
education for love except for falling in love with another person, for
sexual love. I believe that the problem with the world today is that we
have too many people who are not in touch with true love.
Q: What helped you to become loving?
A: When you don’t come from your mother with love, you might have the
gift to be surrounded by other people or situations that are loving and
you learn to love in that way.
My mother didn’t want a child, so I experienced being unwanted. But I
found love when I was with myself. I would go into nature, into gardens
and eat fruit. I would climb trees. I looked to nature and found love
because love is in nature. If you go there, hurt and angry, it can
transform you. I went with nature, with animals, and I found love and
harmony. I would come home at the end of the day—braids pulled out, my
dress torn—and of course I got asked, “Where have you been all day!?”
But I had been in a world of love and happiness.
I am very happy that I discovered love in nature because later I was in a
relationship without love and I still found a way to find love. You can
find love when you are of love.
Q: Did singing help you?
A: I was singing almost from the moment I was born. Ever since I was big
enough, I’ve been singing. When I was a little girl my mother would put
me on a chair and I would sing for the shop ladies. So I was born with a
voice to sing and I have been singing all my life. It might be that
being a singer helped me. Maybe singing on stage helped. Maybe it was a
release.
Q: In what way is singing a spiritual practice?
A: “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” is a song. In the Soka Gakkai tradition we are
taught how to sing it. It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place
inside you. That place we try to reach is the subconscious mind. I
believe that it is the highest place and, if you communicate with it,
that is when you receive information on what to do. Singing a song can
make you cry. Singing a song can make you happy. That’s spirit—the
spirit inside of you. If you look up “spiritual” in a dictionary, you
will find that it is your nature, it is the person you are. When you
walk into a room, a person might say, “Oh, she’s got great spirit.” Or
you can walk into a room and someone will say that you don’t have spirit
because it’s not visible. You’re kind of off or negative. Meditation
and praying change your spirit into something positive. If it is already
positive, it makes it better. I think that is the best answer I can
give you right now.
Q: On Beyond, you say, “Sing—singing takes you beyond.”
A: The singing that I am referring to on the CD is one that comes out of
you when you hum. It’s not necessarily a song, rather it’s that moment
when you find yourself making sounds from within—from your heart, from
your spirit. Each person has a musical song from their bodies. That is
something I learned over time. You can play the tune of your name and
this is the hum from inside of you that can give you peace when you are
really down. My grandmother had a hum, never a song. She would hum
sitting in a rocking chair and I would listen. As a singer, I wanted to
know what my grandmother was singing. But it was the song of her soul.
This song I am referring to is about singing, being happy, enjoying
music, and even when you’re depressed, still singing. You must try to
find that sound or song within you. You might find that it is just a
“huuuaa” or a “hum” or something in falsetto. But it is a sound, which
comes out of you that gives you peace.
Q: In what ways has your practice changed you?
A: I feel that chanting for thirty-five years has opened a door inside
me, and that even if I never chanted again, that door would still be
there. I feel at peace with myself. I feel happier than I have ever
been, and it is not from material things. Material things make me happy,
but I am already happy before I acquire these things. I have a nature
within myself now that’s happy. Practicing the words
“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” for so long has put me in another frame of mind,
so that when I don’t practice for a day or a week, I still feel happy.
But I do practice.
Since I have been practicing Buddhism, I have to say I don’t experience
the feeling of guilt anymore. Practice clears the way. Chanting
“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” makes you comfortable because it removes
uncomfortable mental attitudes. It doesn’t just buy you a car or a
house—it takes care of you.
